


Mama's Boy

by Opalgirl



Category: Tortall - Pierce
Genre: Community: fanfic100, F/M, Family, Kid Fic, Oneshot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-03-06
Updated: 2010-03-06
Packaged: 2017-10-07 18:36:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 842
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/68005
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Opalgirl/pseuds/Opalgirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A persistent Thom of Pirate's Swoop wants his Mama. And he never, ever, <em>ever</em> wants her to leave him again.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mama's Boy

**Author's Note:**

> A little peek at domesticity at the Swoop. Thom II _always_ struck me as such a mama's boy, and this came out of it.

Alanna sat straight up in bed, her eyes scanning her surroundings in the dark. She was home, in bed at the Swoop, not camped on the road where she had to be alert.

George was beside her, awake, alert, and looking for what had roused her so suddenly. "It isn't the babes, is it?"

She realized her hands had shot to her abdomen, to protect the twin lives within from whatever had startled her. "No," she told her husband, trying to relax. "I don't think it was anything."

"You don't wake for naught when you're at home," George pointed out, as she saw a shadow fall across the room.

"Mama? Da?" A hand tugged at the blankets and nudged her arm. Alanna looked down to see her copper-haired son, wrapped in his blanket and clutching some small toy.

"Thom," she said, relieved. "What are you doing?"

"Want Mama," the toddler said simply, extending his arms to her. "Want Da."

"Oh, all right, then. Come here, little lad," she told him, leaning over the edge of the bed to scoop her son up, blanket and all. He made a noise of contentment as she heaved him over the edge of the bed and settled him between his parents.

"He misses you when you're gone," George told her, stroking Thom's red hair back from his face. "He's his Ma's lad, through and through."

Alanna sighed and rubbed her forehead with the heel of her hand. "You know I miss him - and you," she retorted, having had this same conversation over and over again, "and I wouldn't go if I didn't have to."

"I know, darlin'. You'll be home soon enough for a time, with the babies on the way."

She smiled, wryly. "No one knows what to do with me. Even when there were lady knights in the past, none served as Champion. I can't serve Jon like my oath requires while pregnant - I _know_, George - but they need someone acting in the role, who can take a combat position if need be. Jon wouldn't have it, Thayet and Duke Gareth won't hear of it, and Coram would have me hanged.”

Her husband considered this for a moment. "What about one of your lads, then? Just until the babes're born?"

"Raoul's got the Own - and you know how he likes to hide behind the curtains, anyway."

George grinned and settled the covers around Thom, who was half-dozing between the two of them. "How a man that big thinks he can hide, I don't know, but I seem to remember you plotting to join him, last year."

Alanna rolled her eyes at him. "Never you mind. Gary, gods only know why, likes his role shuffling papers, Douglass is riding border patrols, and Sacherell is down along the coast - news that we're still a mess from the Jewel's gotten around. Jon won't pull any of them - they're needed where they are."

"You let Jon deal with that," George suggested, kissing the top of her head. "You're home with me and the lad, an' I intend to keep it that way as long as I can."

Thom wriggled into her lap, and settled himself there, thumb tucked into his mouth, with his small, soft plaything clutched in one hand. Alanna looked down at her son and bent to kiss him, struck by the urge to do so.

“_Mama!_” the toddler squalled in protest, batting at her face with his small hands. “Mama _stop!"_

She laughed and resettled him in her lap, after getting her kiss, remembering a time when he didn’t protest such things. Her son had grown while she was away, and she suddenly regretted every moment on the road, every moment spent away from home while he was so young. "He's gotten so big," she said sadly, knowing she'd missed a hundred of the little things children did at this age. "Goddess."

"Aye," George said solemnly, "and like I said, he misses you. I understand, but he's just too little."

"Mama," Thom said, drowsily, clearly fighting sleep.

"I'm here," she soothed, wrapping an arm about her child. "I'm not going anywhere. And I missed you too." That seemed to settle him; the toddler turned his face into her stomach and dozed off in a moment.

"He'll be pleased with that ridiculous stuffed bear ye brought him from Legann when he sees it," George murmured, leaning over her shoulder.

"That's what I thought," she replied, smiling. "I know it doesn't make up for it, but I…." Could she explain the guilt she felt to her husband? In the majority of the households in the land, it was the father who rode away to serve the king, not the mother. Children needed their mothers - she knew that all too well - and she was away from her child regularly.

"No, it doesn't." George gripped her shoulder with one of his big hands. "But you needn't feel guilty - Mother told me you hadn't planned to have children. You're doing what's asked of you. He's just too small to understand."


End file.
